Public Conversations

To those that know more than the basic information about me, I have many siblings.  One of my closest siblings is my younger brother Batman (not sure he wants me to use his name in my blog yet.  I may want to ask him about that....eh....oh well).  Back to the post.  My brother and I have a lot in common.  One thing is that, as friendly as we are, we don't like talking to people while we're out to take care of business.  Does this mean that if we're out and about running errands we will not take a phone call from our loved ones?  No.  Of course not.  But if we're in the waiting area of the DMV, the last thing we want to do is get into a conversation with a complete stranger about their health issues.

It seems that where ever there's a high occupancy lobby, there will be someone that wants to run their yap.  Now don't get me wrong.  I am bothered by the quantity of people that sit heads bowed praying to the iPhone and Android gods on their mobile devices.  But what happened to just going to a place of business and quietly sitting while waiting for your name to be called?

True story alert:  I was at the DMV after arriving to what I thought was on time for opening (8:00am) only to find out that on this particular day that they weren't opening until 9:30am.  Once inside, it's full of customers, of course, and I sit in the waiting area until I my name is called.  Then I'm introduced to a woman that says good morning then proceeds to ask me why I'm there.  Fair enough.  I engage in small talk and that was my first mistake.  Because my inch has turned into a mile and she talks for a bunch of them....miles that is.  In fifteen minutes I learned of her idiotic baby daddy, her irritating manager and her irregular period.  I couldn't make this up if I wanted to.  Not to mention that I'm leaving out the people having the loudest of conversations on their cellular phones and irate customers at the main desk.

This happens in more public offices than I care to witness.  And it's not that I'm a rude person....I just don't give a fuck about your shit at 8:00 in the morning when I'm trying to handle my business.  All I want is a response if we make eye contact and I greet you.  Maybe a "Nice weather we're having, eh?" and shut the fuck up.  Alas, this dream is far in chances of reality so in the meantime, I'll try not to look so annoyed by the presence of conversations I don't want to have.